Report by David Millachip
LYMM moved up to third in the table after ploughing through the mud for a hard earned 5-11 victory at Kirkby Lonsdale.
After taking the trip up the M6 to the picturesque setting of Kirkby Lonsdale’s Underley Park in the Cumbrian fells, it was hoped they might be spared the mud of many previous weeks.
But after only a couple of minutes play, the pitch surface started to cut up with deep divots to slow down the free running style of the Lymm side, missing only a couple of regulars.
Playing down the slope, Kirkby quickly settled into kicking mode but found Joe Denman in excellent catching form to blunt their efforts. After only 10 minutes, another Kirkby kick into the Lymm half was swiftly gathered by the Lymm back line and the ball swept out wide right to 2nd row Sam Mullarky, who outpaced most of the Kirkby team over 40m, before running into traffic and passing to open side flanker Jake Ashall, who drove through and over the final 10m to set down over the line for a superb try. The cross wind didn’t help and the conversion attempt was missed, leaving the score at 0-5.
That was really only the real entertainment the large 200 or so crowd were to see for the rest of the afternoon as the players struggled to cope with the conditions. However, on 15 minutes, Kirkby entered a good passage of play, going through many phases and finally their outside centre going over wide on the right. The kick was missed, 5-5. From the kick-off Lymm pushed into the Kirkby half where the home side found themselves offside in a central position to allow reliable full back Cormac Nolan to bisect the posts, 5-8.
The remaining 20 minutes of the first half was spent between the 22 meter lines, with neither side able to assert any dominance and just the odd penalty in non-kickable positions to give players a bit of a rest. Your reporter noted hereabouts the speed of the Lymm physio, Chris, as he swept over the mud to fettle stand-off Scott Redfern back to playing condition. Half time came, still 5-8.
The second half started much as the first had ended in it’s somewhat less than thrilling manner although strong passages of defensive play from both sides prevented further scores. Lymm did find themselves down at the Kirkby end after a few minutes but an infringement at a breakdown 1m saw a clear cut scoring opportunity was lost as Kirkby booted them back to halfway.
The Lymm replacements were slowly becoming colder but coach Fletcher responded to their pleas and after 60 minutes Kieran O’Callaghan came on for Matty Hand; Aaron Rasheed for Matty Connelly. Reece Jones came on for injured Cormac Nolan. On the 70 minute mark it was Kirkby who were adjudged to have not rolled away and Scott Redfern accepted an easy opportunity from 20m to increase Lymm’s scoreline, 5-11.
Play continued with its strong, stifling, defensive tactics and Kirkby who had seen some 70% of the second half play and seeing the game there ready to be won decided to pressure Lymm even more and camped out on the Lymm 5m line. With just a couple of minutes to go, another ill-judged Kirkby infringement left a Lymm player with a nasty eye injury, which he did not appreciate and retaliated thus leading to him leaving the field under a red card. How much the referee saw of the melee one wonders as the assailant stayed on the pitch. However Lymm saw out the game with the same resolute, organised defensive game which has been so much a feature of this season’s play thus denying Kirkby Lonsdale any further addition to the 5-11 score.
Having conceded so much ball to Kirkby, particularly in the second half, it turned out to be a good 4 point win for Lymm; and so it was back to the packed Clubhouse with its roaring open log fire, and the much enjoyed hospitality of the hosts who had earlier entertained the visitors to a great lunch.
Lymm will be hoping for the current dire pitch conditions to improve significantly enough for their Grounds Team to undertake significant improvements before the visit of Hull when they will have to be much less generous in conceding the ball to the East Yorkshire visitors.
Now 3rd in the table, just a point behind Harrogate and a long way behind the season long leaders, Preston Grasshoppers, Lymm face a must-win game against 4rd placed Hull. KO is 2.15 at Beechwood.
Squad:
1) Gav Woods, 2) Dan Horton, 3) Matty Hand, 4) Sam Mullarkey, 5) Matty Connelly, 6) Adam Bray(c), 7) Jake Ashall, 8) Ali Sutherland, 9) Andy Davies, 10) Scott Redfern, 11) Luke Richards,
12) James Kimber, 13) Tom Bray, 14) Joe Denman, 15) Cormac Nolan, 16) Aaron Rasheed,
17) Kieron O’Callaghan, 18) Reece Jones.
